Cathy Chang transferred 85,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Air Canada Aeroplan and redeemed them for a one-way flight from San Francisco to Sydney via Tokyo in All Nippon Airways business class. A few weeks before she planned to take off on her journey to Australia, however, Chang ran into a bit of unexpected turbulence.
That’s when Chang used Google to search for an Air Canada customer service number she could call to discuss the check-in process for her 1:45 a.m. flight. After dialing the number that appeared in the top search result, she soon found herself speaking to an airline agent — or so she thought.
That person, who identified herself as an employee of Air Canada, had some surprising news. She said Chang was on a waitlist and needed to pay an additional $493 to confirm her flight.
Startled by this new information that seemed to put her entire trip in jeopardy, Chang paid the fee using her Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Only after Chang called Air Canada a few hours later using a number from the airline’s website did she begin to suspect she had been scammed by someone pretending to be the airline.
When she logged in to her Chase account, it displayed Air Canada as the merchant charging her $493. However, Air Canada says it didn’t bill her any additional fees and has no record of the transaction. Hoping to get her money back, Chang asked TPG to intervene.
What exactly was going on here, and could we do anything about it? Here’s how we tackled the problem.
Planning a trip to Australia
In May 2022, Chang began planning a trip to Australia for April 2023. Transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to her Air Canada Aeroplan account at a 1:1 conversion rate, she was able to snag a business-class seat on ANA for 85,000 Aeroplan points.
The transaction went smoothly, and she soon received her PNR (passenger name record). Because she was redeeming her points for an award on a partner airline, she knew to wait until she received the 13-digit ticket number before planning the rest of her vacation.
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Within a day of making her reservation, Chang had her ticket number from ANA and began making the rest of her plans.
Calling Air Canada customer service to get check-in details
Fast forward to March, when Chang began to wonder about checking in for her upcoming flight.
“The departure was scheduled for 1:45 a.m.,” Chang explained. “So I wanted to see what time I should check in. I Googled ‘Air Canada San Francisco Airport’ and called the number in the top result. All I wanted to know was what time the counter opened. The lady who answered the phone said, ‘Air Canada. How can I help?'”
Although Chang’s question should have been easy to answer without any personal details, the agent on the other end of the line asked for her flight information.
Not having any reason to believe that she was speaking to anyone but Air Canada, Chang provided her PNR to the friendly agent.
That’s when things started taking an unusual turn.
“She stated that I was on the waitlist in pending status. Unless I paid her 675 Canadian dollars ($493 at the time) to select and confirm a seat, I could miss the flight,” Chang said. “When I showed some hesitation, she quickly transferred me to a male supervisor, who was as skillfully convincing as her.”
Startled and confused as to how her confirmed flight had gone from ticketed to pending, Chang pulled out her credit card and paid the fee.
Air Canada: ‘We have no record of that call or transaction’
After Chang hung up the phone, she began thinking over the call. Something about the entire transaction seemed off.
Chang called Air Canada once more, but this time she used the number she found directly on the airline’s website.
“Air Canada told me that they had no record of my call and didn’t receive any payment,” Chang recalled.
“Instead, I had been talking to sophisticated scammers. Those people don’t work for Air Canada — they’re running a fake customer service center.”
The real Air Canada representative confirmed to Chang that her flight had been fully ticketed many months ago — she owed no further payment.
But now Chang was worried; she had given these scammers her personal details, including her credit card information. With several weeks before her trip was set to begin, she asked how to protect her reservation from any meddling.
“They [Air Canada] said that they would put a notification in my record to not allow any changes,” Chang told me. “But I was still worried.”
Asking Chase for help reversing the fraudulent charge
Chang’s next call was to Chase. She wanted to file a credit card charge dispute to reverse the fraudulent purchases on her Chase Sapphire Reserve .
She figured this would be an easy fix. It wasn’t.
“Chase told me that they couldn’t accept this as a fraudulent charge because it was coming directly from Air Canada,” Chang said.
Stunned, she explained to the Chase representative that Air Canada had already confirmed this charge didn’t originate with the airline. She reiterated that she was a victim of a fake customer service center posing as Air Canada. But the Chase agent remained unconvinced and rejected the request for a chargeback.
Frustrated at her inability to convince Chase of the scam, Chang then filed a complaint with her state’s attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.
But despite all her efforts, weeks later, she was still no closer to retrieving her money from the scammers.
That’s when she got one more idea: to ask TPG for help.
Proving this is a fake Air Canada customer service center
When I received Chang’s request for help, she was discouraged but also worried that the fake Air Canada customer service “company” might still tamper with her upcoming flight.
When I reviewed the documentation she sent me, I could see why a Chase agent had rejected her credit card dispute on the basis of fraud: The charges identified the merchant as Air Canada. The only peculiarity to the purchase line item was the phone number listed with the entry: 844-914-3710.
A quick Google search shows that this number is not associated with Air Canada but rather with a company called Fly Vault.
Beware: Fly Vault is not Air Canada or any other airline
Fly Vault has earned an online reputation as a company that frequently misleads unsuspecting travelers into believing that its representatives work at various airlines.
Complaints to the BBB about Fly Vault reveal that its agents pretend to be from Air Canada, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and others. On the day I received Chang’s case, I called Fly Vault myself to see what might happen.
Here’s an excerpt from my conversation with one of their agents:
Fly Vault: “Reservations desk. How can I help you?”
Michelle Couch-Friedman: “Reservations desk of what?”
Fly Vault: “Flight reservation desk.”
MCF: “Of what airline?”
Fly Vault: “United Airlines.”
MCF: “I’ve reached United Airlines customer service?”
Fly Vault: “Yes, what can I do for you?”
MCF: “I just want to make sure that I’m talking to an employee of United Airlines. Are you an employee of United Airlines?”
Fly Vault: “Yes, at the airport.”
MCF: “What airport?”
Fly Vault: “Texas.”
MCF: “Texas? OK. Thanks.”
At that point, I hung up. But to my surprise, a few minutes later, my phone rang. Now the same person I had just spoken to was calling me back from a cellphone number in Houston. He reiterated that he wanted to help me with my United Airlines reservation.
But when I told him I wasn’t trying to reach United Airlines, that I thought I was calling Air Canada, he suddenly changed his affiliation. Now he said he was also an employee of Air Canada “at the airport.”
I then told him I was a consumer advocate investigating a complaint about Fly Vault. He hung up on me.
Appealing the credit card dispute
The Fair Credit Billing Act protects credit card-using consumers. If a merchant who bills your credit card doesn’t provide the goods and services as agreed, or if it processes a charge that is outright fraud, your credit card company must investigate your complaint.
The charge in question will be paused or reversed during a credit card dispute investigation. The merchant will have 30 days to respond to the credit card company and provide justification for the charge. If the company doesn’t answer or cannot explain, your conditional credit will become permanent.
Once we established that the $493 had not been charged by Air Canada and that Chang had received nothing in return from Fly Vault, I encouraged her to appeal her credit card dispute, which she did by calling Chase and asking for a reconsideration of her complaint. The bank’s fraud department agreed to investigate further and Chang flew to Australia to enjoy her long-awaited vacation.
“I was relieved that my flight to Sydney had not been touched,” Chang told me. “Fear that someone might cancel my reservation was a worry of mine right up until I got on that aircraft!”
When Chang returned from her trip Down Under, she received a letter from Chase in her mailbox. It contained good news about her dispute: Her temporary credit was now permanent.
“I was informed by Chase Dispute Department that the vendor (not sure if it meant Air Canada or Fly Vault) couldn’t provide enough supporting evidence for the charge and thus lost the dispute,” Chang said. “I am so glad this is over, at least on my part. Now I would just love to get the word out about my experience so no one else gets tricked like me!”
That’s our goal, too, so here are some tips to avoid a similar situation.
But how did Fly Vault spoof Air Canada with Chase?
After this case was complete, I asked our executive Chase contact how it was possible for Fly Vault to spoof Air Canada in the merchant line on Chang’s credit card statement. After a thorough investigation that stumped even the Chase team, a spokesperson explained to me in a phone call what the team believes happened here.
Merchants can edit their own name in the company line when they register with a credit card terminal (the processor of the charges). If no one is looking closely, a company such as Fly Vault can provide a misleading name. Evidence suggests that Fly Vault has multiple terminals with multiple airlines listed as the merchant.
Chase confirms, as did Air Canada, that the charge on Chang’s Chase Sapphire Reserve did not come from the airline. It came from Fly Vault, and that $493 was a fraudulent charge.
“We’ve credited Ms. Chang’s account in full and urge consumers to visit the official website of the airline they are traveling with to find their legitimate customer service number,” a Chase spokesperson said.
How to avoid falling for a fake airline customer service center
Unfortunately, online scammers are constantly adapting their schemes to stay a little ahead of the game against their victims. It’s more important than ever that travelers stay on their toes when self-booking.
Here’s what you need to know about fake airline customer service centers and how to avoid them.
Look carefully at the Google search results
Google elevates content to the top of the search results that its algorithms determine answers queries the best, but there are some exceptions since Google also sells ads to businesses.
So, the company you see in those top results for your question could be a paid advertisement. However, businesses that have paid for their placement in the search results are always labeled as such with a bolded “Sponsored” notation showing above them. Unfortunately, consumers sometimes miss that distinction.
When scrolling through the internet looking for reliable customer-service information, it’s best to skip advertisements and go to the top organic result (non-paid placement).
Make sure you are on the airline’s website
Virtually all airlines in the United States and Canada have 800 or 888 customer service phone numbers so that the call is paid for by the airline, not their passengers. But for obvious reasons, scammers don’t typically provide a toll-free number for their victims to call.
If your search for contact information has led you to a non-toll-free number, that should be your first clue that your call may be landing somewhere other than the airline’s official customer service center.
Don’t respond to the created sense of urgency
Scammers often rely on catching their victims off guard. They aim to seal the deal and get your money before you can think logically about the situation.
Actual airline employees don’t pressure their customers into making quick decisions because they have no reason to do so. If you’ve reached an agent who urges you to pay inflated or additional fees quickly without giving you a reasonable explanation as to why, that’s a red flag.
Hang up and confirm that the number you’ve called is actually the airline. If it isn’t, you’ve likely averted a scam.
Be aware that phone numbers can be spoofed
Scammers don’t always give up their pursuit just because the traveler is unwilling to follow their instructions and hangs up. Those predators will call their potential victim back and try to continue the scheme — frequently from a number that looks like they’re calling from the airline.
Consumers should remember that it is easy for the bad guys to spoof their phone numbers. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security because of what you see on your caller ID screen. Always look at the number itself.
Be wary about sharing your PNR
Consumers should not share their PNR (or post photos of it on social media) with anyone other than a verified airline representative.
As a consumer advocate, I’ve reviewed many cases in which the traveler believed that the scammer worked for the airline because they knew personal details about their trip. But when I look closely at these cases, including Chang’s, the traveler provided their PNR to the scammer.
That reservation information can allow someone to look up your trip details, and even adjust or cancel it.
Ask for an actual customer contact at the airline
Consumers often find it difficult to reach key people who can resolve problems at airlines and other travel companies. That’s why my advocacy organization is dedicated to helping travelers make connections with real people who we know can help.
If you need a reliable customer service or executive contact with whom you can escalate your problem, send your request to Consumer Rescue. Just tell us which company you’re struggling with, and we’ll give you the name and email information of a specific person you can contact.
File a credit card dispute
If the worst has happened and you’ve given your credit card information to a fake airline customer service center, don’t panic. The Fair Credit Billing Act should protect you if a scammer charges your credit card for goods or services it does not provide.
Here’s what you should do in these circumstances:
- Call the number on the back of your card and ask to “dispute a charge.”
- Explain why the charge qualifies for a dispute.
- Your credit card company will provide you with a temporary credit or pause on the charge.
- The merchant will have 30 days to respond to the chargeback.
- If the merchant doesn’t respond or is unable to provide justification for the charge, you’ll win the dispute, and the temporary credit will become permanent.
- If the credit card company rejects your initial dispute, consider ways to appeal by providing additional information, like the Fly Vault phone number Chang found associated with her charge.
Bottom line
It’s easy to avoid falling victim to fake airline customer service centers as long as you know what they look like. If you follow the guidance above, you likely won’t find yourself with an unnecessary charge on your credit card bill from someone posing as an airline representative.
If you have an issue with an airline, cruise line, credit card company, car rental agency or vacation rental and need some help fixing it, send your request for help to [email protected], and I will be happy to investigate and try to assist you too.
